Eternal Anthem
by weeza29745
Summary: Oneshot. Goes with my other story "Children of Time" with Chapter 3. It's angsty, hope you like it. Link has come to say his final goodbye, his final goodbye to his best friend, the one and only, Saria. I suck at summaries.


"Tell Link... All he has to do... Is play the song and he'll hear my voi--" Saria was interrupted by another fit of retching up scarlet liquid that also seeped onto the forest for, her cries of pain echoing through the woods. The forest forevermore silent without the sweet magic of the littlest sage. Joy is swept away in something stronger than a gentle breeze, the cold loneliness that stayed with the kokiri child all these years without her Link to visit her. No more visits, no more beautiful, soft sounds or quiet laughter. Only haunting melodies that bring back the blood that seeps from the green girl's stomach like the tears on her face.

In that spot, nothing will ever grow again, because pure nature died there and so it will be barren because all reason for that patch was to kill a sage. The most wise blue eyes roll into the back of her head as she finishes her last breaths in silence, short and ragged though they may be, she manages to hold on just long enough to say as Taelen leaned over her, "I love you, Link. I will always be with you." Those last words seemed so strong that they were wondering if she was going to live after all.

Finally, her chest stopped and she crashed completely on the ground where she lay undiscovered for several years.

---

One day, Link decided to look for Saria's corpse to give his dearest friend a proper burial. He hears silence which causes him the greatest pain. He plays her song on his Fairy Ocarina, and a slow, dead-like tune picks up, just enough to show him the way into the grudging woods. He approached the maze and wove his way around the untamed hedges, to a meadow that would have been beautiful if the grass was living and the water was not a glassy black.

He stopped and stared at the rotted stump. On top of it sat just what he was looking for.

Saria sat perched on the old protrusion of wood remnants... She was covered in cobwebs and vines, the clay Ocarina held to her eternally pale lips, as if she was playing. Dried blood looked as if it would begin flowing again from her mouth. Her stomach, in her stomach, some sort of plant had grown, a budding flower... Link sunk to his knees, breaking down into tears. He wiped away the drops and trudged slowly to his best friend. His _dead _best friend and opened the bud's petals.

They were as green as her hair and the center as blue as her eyes. The other strange thing, it was stained heavily with blood and that it hadn't started to fade in the least. Link touched Saria's cheek and kissed the other one.

"I'm so sorry I didn't say good bye..." He could barely whisper, it hurt to even talk. All he could do is sob and look at the little flower. He played her song again, slowly, lifelessly, and he could almost hear her bright and cheery voice, encouraging him to play it louder and faster, that she promised not to make fun of him. He could hear her sweet laughter ring through his head, louder and louder the music got as her imaginary voice rang through the forest, she was seemingly singing along with the tune, holding Link's hand, like when they were younger, and the innocent games they played. Tears leaked down the grown man's face as he played her pretend funeral's anthem to himself in the intense loneliness wrapping itself around him and her, her corpse.

He imagined the old color flooding back into her face, her forest hair shimmering like emerald in the warm sunlight, now it was dull and crimson stained, her large, blue eyes looking at him with the kindness of a sage as they ran in the meadows endlessly. She looked so much as if she was getting ready to play him a song.

He became angry at the forest and tore away the vines and cobwebs shrouding her figure. He propped her up and closed her porcelain eyelids and brought the Ocarina closer to her lips, like she was playing it. He pressed her fingers to the correct holes while the hot tears poured down his face relentlessly. He was going to say goodbye right.

He played, posing like her, but with his eyes open to watch. With him blasting on his Ocarina, it really looked like she was alive. He began crying harder, because he knew it was pointless to hope, he knew she was never coming back, no matter what song he played, so he decided to run, and never look back. Before he did, he took a unique flower and kissed her cheek one more time, whispering what she said.

"I'll always be with you."


End file.
